real weddings
tj maxxinista bride
Just for fun….
“Lisa Sayatut and Drew Ellis, a local Mount Pleasant, Michigan couple said their “I Dos” in their local T.J.Maxx store on Saturday, July 24, 2010. The couple’s unique nuptials came as a result of the bride-to-be’s love for T.J.Maxx. Lisa, a true “Maxxinista,” who admits to visiting the store three times a week, calls it her “happy place.”
On a $5k wedding budget, this Maxxinista got her wedding and maybe a little shopping afterwards!
What do you think, readers?
so, what’s with the blog?
This afternoon I had the pleasure of having lunch with Amanda Monarch Woods (previous bride), her fabulous mother, Rachel Monarch and the soon-to-be-wed sister, Amy Monarch.
I have to tell you, I triple heart the Monarch family. What is not to love? They are Type A personalities (check), lots of fun (check), very direct and blunt (check) and always want to throw a great party (check!).
Amanda politely asked me, “What’s up with the blog?” Seriously, thank you for the gentle reminder, as I have been quite delinquent. As our team has grown this year, I’m hoping to have more blog posts done by not just “my voice”.
Now Amanda and Brian are no strangers to our blog, you see when you have a super cool personality, you get talked about. Like when they decided to meet before the wedding, we used their pretty faces, or when we talked about being a “wedding risk taker“, and finally, my personal fave….. how to make a grand entrance into your wedding reception, OH YES!
Today, though, also just happens to be Amanda and Brian’s 2nd wedding anniversary. And for that reason, I’d like to play a little homage to their wedding and see if we can get Amanda to cook more than just spaghetti for her anniversary dinner…
Enjoy….
photo credit: walker studio
flowers by: Simply Fresh Floral
a happy mother of the bride
I usually don’t post these in my blog content (well in the kudos section), but I received this lovely email from a Mother of the Bride at 12:15am this morning. (And a similar email happened to my planner friend, Emilie Duncan).
Maddy + Gregg’s wedding was yesterday and it was fantastic. Small, intimate and lovely. What was personal for me was that Maddy’s father passed away few years ago, so we were extra sensitive to this issue, but we still felt that he was there in spirit.
This is the email:
Saundra,
Mere words cannot say how terrific I think you are. You made it all come together perfectly for one of the best weddings my family and I as well as our guests have ever attended. This day would not have been as happy and stress free without you. I know from a professional standpoint we were pretty small potatoes, but I could see how much you love what you do, and I am so grateful for you accepting us as your clients. You absolutely ROCK. I know I was a skeptic a year ago, but change makes believers, and I am absolutely your biggest fan.
Thank you again for putting all the special touches in to this happy happy day. You kept my baby and me smiling and worry free. You can add us to your list of references prospective clients can call and I will sing your praises from the rooftops. It was an A HA day all the way.
Warmest and heartfelt regards,
Stephanie Heine
Heart you both back!
dressing up your wedding aisle
An economical way of dressing up your ceremony is to place close attention to the details of your aisle runner. It’s the easiest way to transform the church or ceremony site into something that looks like a “wedding”.
Now the impulse might be to run out to the local store that has allocated one aisle to the theme of “weddings” and purchase a rolled up, aisle runner that is around $20. It’s made of paper, kind of like interfacing. One step on it with girls heels and it rips. It also looks like it’s worth about a buck twenty. STOP. Resist the urge to buy any paper product to walk float down the aisle to your groom.
Above are a few alternatives to your typical aisle runner. The first photo was a wedding we coordinated outside, the most challenging situation to have an aisle runner. Instead the designer laid down white dance floor. It was spectacular looking fabulous as well as comfortable for the girls in heels. Cloth aisle runners have a hard time staying on grass, that’s why you see so many outdoor weddings with flower petals as the aisle runner. Just be sure to have your planner put the roses petals down just before you walk through, wind tends to blow them away.
The second photos is an aisle runner made of white carpet! Such an interesting twist and we like to use this technique in venues that might have hardwood floors, so when the girls walk down they don’t sound like a herd of elephants.
The last photo is the an aisle runner at one of our weddings, Jenny + Adam. We didn’t do too much decor at the church, instead concentrated on the aisle. As always, we used cloth!
weird wedding mishaps:
As you know, many things can go wrong at weddings. MANY things. In the past years we have had many crazy mishaps that have happened, here’s just a few to mention:
- Recently we had a wedding party introduction that was done to a meticulously timed music intro. The groom was pretty proud of putting it together in advance. One of the bridesmaids introduced unfortunately FELL during the intro and dislocated her knee. When I say dislocated, her knee was facing the WRONG direction. She laid their screaming in pain (don’t blame her a bit) and there was a guest that is a chiropractor, he came and popped her knee back in place. The 2nd photographer shooter however, was totally grossed out and she fainted and hit her head. Update: the bridesmaid has to have surgery to fix her knee.
- A 2 year old flower girl walked down the aisle and then was taken outside by her father, because obviously she wasn’t going to be quiet during the ceremony. She was given a piece of candy, which she promptly started choking on. After about 45 seconds of her not breathing, which seems like an eternity, the candy popped out. Paramedics came to make sure she was okay. Bride never found out until the next morning.
- A bride, MOMENTS before she was to walk down the aisle, had her beaded trim along her veil break. The sound of beads hitting the floor was like a BB gun shooting off. A bridesmaid quickly grabbed it to stop the slew of beads falling and we sewed it up so she could make her wedding without her veil coming undone down the aisle.
- At the same wedding (bride with the veil), a groomsman was standing at the front of the altar and apparently locked his knees. While it didn’t seem overly warm in the church, his body temperature shot up. He fainted. Like a tree, straight over during the ring exchange.
- We planned a beautiful outdoor reception at a private residence. The bride, abhorred tents, it was not a money issue. After the guests sat down and was served salad, we check the Doppler radar system and realized that we would be seeing rain … like soon. At this point, there is no rain plan, it’s too late. I alerted the groom and we moved up the toasts and the first dances. The skies opened up and we had “sky to ground” lightening with quarter size hail. Needless to say, the guests took cover. The rain did stop and we ate, only to have the skies open up again with a good steady stream. The band’s cords were submerged under water, however, we gave the band’s “tip money” to the sound engineer and he stayed and played his personal iPod. The evening was so much fun with impromptu dancing and a sing-a-long by a guest playing the piano.
- On the eve of one of our weddings, our DJ’s establishment caught fire. The DJ was working late inside the building but made it out okay. He called the fire department, his boss and then us. We had another DJ lined up within one hour and only told the mother of the bride. The outcome was the DJ was able to make the wedding with all his equipment and the reception took place without anyone knowing the wiser. Including the bride, who was told at the very end of the evening.
Oh there is a lot more… perhaps a follow up post at a later date?
Moral of the story? No matter how much you plan, no matter how many times you call a vendor to confirm, no matter how much you want your day to go (ahem) “perfect”… life has a plan of its own. Roll with the punches and enjoy your wedding day.
What were your wedding mishaps?
jennifer + adam’s wedding
We had our first wedding in Jasper and Huntingburg, Indiana this weekend. What a fantastic area! It was such a great wedding with wonderful family (we heart Jenny’s mom, Cindy).
The new Huntingburg Event Center was fantastic! So excited to have a new venue that is up to code and is a wonderful facility. Cannot say enough good things about that venue and their staff.
Here’s a few photos from the iPhone just to capture the day. Jenny and Adam’s doggie/baby made a quick appearance after the wedding for formal photos. Too cute!
Finally a real professional photo,below of the happy wedding party in the RV transportation! CRAZY fun!
photo: Brian with Clarion Creative
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